A Cambridge flat rented by an alleged madam was used as part of a “very lucrative” nationwide prostitution ring, a court has heard.

Sun Sun Wong, 42, is accused of running prostitutes out of a flat at Midsummer Court, Manhattan Drive, just yards from the Cambridge University Boat House and the banks of the River Cam.

Today (Tuesday, February 13), Cambridge Crown Court heard how an undercover police operation discovered a sex work website was being used to advertise prostitution in the city.

Wong, of Blucher Street, Birmingham, is charged with controlling prostitution for gain and converting criminal property.

‘The middleman between a punter and a prostitute’

As the trial began prosecutor Edward Renvoize told the jury Wong would arrange “appointments” for sex using the Chinese messaging service WeChat, an app similar to WhatsApp that allows messages to be sent in English or Chinese.

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He said: “What she was doing was acting as a madam or a pimp, the middleman between a punter and a prostitute, putting one in contact with the other, by receiving a message from a punter, and telling the punter where they had to go.

“That location, say the prosecution, was where Sun Sun Wong had installed a prostitute.”

Mr Renvoize told the court Wong, who sat silently in the dock alongside a Cantonese interpreter, received “vast sums of money” into a Santander bank account, which was used to buy or rent at least nine properties from 2004 to 2016.

As well as the one in Cambridge, an investigation into her finances found she rented flats in Edinburgh, Watford and Harrow, and owned properties in Birmingham and Manchester.

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At one of the raided properties police also found a phone containing WeChat messages from an account called ‘SuSu’, which were translated from Chinese.

According to Dc McKeane, one such conversation read: “Midsummer Court, Cambridge, ok?”

“A cust might be there at 11.30pm. Thank you.”

The response was “Ok. He is here now”.

A sophisticated criminal?

The court also heard from Brian Schofield, a financial investigator who analysed Wong’s finances for the prosecution.

He said he had found evidence of Wong buying properties outright, and renting them from letting agencies, sometimes paying up to six months’ rent in advance.

But defence solicitor Edward Lucas suggested buying and renting property in her own name was not the actions of a sophisticated criminal.

He said: “Isn’t it unusual this criminal mastermind (points to Wong), is using the same bank account in her own name?

“Don’t these criminal masterminds mask their affairs, rather than leaving it for all to see?”

Mr Schofield replied: “A cocaine trafficker would know very well that his or her tracks would need to be covered. It may be in this case Miss Wong was naive as to the level of the offence being committed, and didn’t cover her tracks as well as she might have.”

The trial continues.

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